Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday announced he is introducing legislation seeking to fund President Donald Trump’s ballroom project.
The bill would direct $400 million in federal funding to the White House’s new ballroom, which will include a military bunker as part of its national security enhancements. Trump has argued the new venue is necessary to address security concerns sparked by the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, which he attended and was forced to evacuate.
“Underneath this ballroom will be infrastructure that is national security-centric,” Graham told reporters as he detailed the legislation. “The ballroom itself will avoid the dilemma of having to leave the White House grounds with future presidents and this president to go downtown in a place that’s less secure.”
“President Trump said to me … yesterday, ‘We need the ballroom, not just for me, but for future presidents,’” the senator continued. “The sooner we get the ballroom built, the more hardened it is, the better for the country. So I hope and pray that most people in the Senate after Saturday night will support this bill.”
Before Graham introduced the bill, the White House had long said the project was being funded through a mix of private donations and Trump’s personal funds.
“I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer! The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly,” Trump said in October.
When he announced his bill on Tuesday, Graham said that in addition to the $400 million in federal funding, some of the ballroom costs would be covered by private donations and some would be offset by “custom fees.”
“[The bill] would authorize $400 million to be spent to secure, to build the presidential ballroom,” he said. “Underneath, there will be a lot of military stuff. There will be a Secret Service annex, and we’ve paid for it by offsetting it with custom fees.”
“$400 million of taxpayer money is a good investment to create a secure facility at the White House where the president of the United States, the vice president, the Cabinet, and people from the public can come and have a meal and gather without what happened Saturday,” Graham said. “The No. 1 job of the federal government is national security. The No. 1 job of national security would be to protect the commander in chief and to have infrastructure under the ballroom that is very national security-centric.”
The White House initially announced the ballroom project last summer and tore down the East Wing to make way for the new venue. The 90,000-square-foot space is expected to accommodate roughly 1,000 people.
Trump’s ballroom has attracted some criticism and legal hurdles from those who have mourned the loss of the East Wing or argued the project required congressional approval. In the wake of the attack on the correspondents’ dinner over the weekend, Trump urged critics to back off, arguing that the attack proved the White House needs its own venue to host such events. He said the incident “would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House.”
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“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social.
“It cannot be built fast enough!” the president continued.
